Tree or tree foot



June 27, 1933. H. HALLAM TREE on TREE FOOT Filed Nov. 4, 1931 Fig.5.

Patented June 27, 1933 ear-er oer-ice mam? KA-LLAM, or rinaonsrnn, ENGLAND,.ASSIGNOR To UNITED SHOE rreorrrnnnv Genre-enter. or EPA'l-ERSON; NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION on NEW JERSEY TREE OR TREE FOOT Applicationfiled November 4, 1931-, Serial to. 572.984, and. in Great Zritain November 27, 1930.

This invention relates to trees or tree feet 7 suitable for use in treeing boots and shoes and like other machines for use in performing treeing operations on boots or shoes (hereinafter for convenience referred tosimply as shoes), are provided with treeing forms or feet on which the shoes are supported while cleaning, polishing and ironing operations are carried out upon their uppers,- the feet being expansiblc in various directions so as fully to fill the shoes after the latter have been placed on them. The tree feet of the patented machine are removable from the machine without deflation and are capable of use for holding shoes in their intended shape for considerable periods, for display or otherwise, When so used. they are commonly termed trees Accordingly, the expression tree is used hereinafter to cover any device for fillinga shoe and intended to bring it to its original lasted shape. It is desirablethat the tree employed to fill a shoe for a treeing operation should as 1 nearly as possibleduplicate in its outlines the last on which the particular shoe was made so that ironing operations, for instance, may not imparttothe shoe any 'diifere11t shape from that originally intended; Pneumatically expansible or inflatable trees have com; monly been provided with pliable, as opposed. to resilient, coverings such as leather or relatively soft rubber. This sort'of tree is advantageous in that the tree itself does not need to be given the exact shape of the last on which the shoe to be treated was made and is capable of filling completely the shoe, leavin}; no gaps or unsupported portions. 5

One im ortant object of the present iI'iVIE tion is to provide an improved shoe tree or tree foot for' shoe treeing machine which effectix' ely will retain unchanged, under pressure or expansion to fill shes, the. exterior contours imparted to the shoe by its laet.

This object is attained in the illustrated construction by providing, in accordance with one feature of the invention, a shoe tree havlng an exterior cover member, which cover member is made of relatively stiff but resilient material adapted to fill the shoe or even to distend the shoe very slightly when itis pressed against the interior of the shoe as by reason of inflation of a body member therein and at the same time to. retain substantially unchanged the exterior contour of the shoe impartedduring the lasting operation. The illustrated resilient cover member or shell substantially surrounds the sides of the body member and is arranged, in accordance with another feature of the invention, particularly to facilitate extension laterally of the shoe, thereby to fill at least the forepart of the shoe. The shell may advantageously beconstructed 'of comparatively hard rubber which, when vulcanized, is resilient and not merely pliable. For some grades of work the shell may satisfactorily be constructed of celluloid or fiberboard. I

In accordance with still another feature of the invention, the illustrated shoe tree has a shoe-uppereengaging surface composed of material, such as hard rubber, which is only slightly distortable by inflation and is arranged to engage substantially the whole of the interior of the shoe upper above the sole of the shoe, and also has a shoe bottom engaging surface which is composed of material, such as softrubber, which is readily distortable by inflation and hence is also capable of lateral expansion. As illustrated, this upperengaging surface is constructed of a stiff, resilient material such as hard rubber capable of lateral deflection upon expansion of the sole engaging surface, thereby to distend the shoe laterally while retaining substantially V on the line III-IIIof Fig. 1; and

Fig. 4 shows on a still larger scale a section on the line IV-IV of Fig.1.

The illustrated tree is of a type suitable for use in connection with the treeing machine of" the Read patent mentioned above, it being capable of ready attachment to said machine for inflation, and detachment from the machine Whilestill in an inflated condition. To this end the tree, as does also the tree foot illustratedin the Read patent, comprises a pneumatically expansible or inflatable body member 10 (Figs. 3 and 4) of rubber or other suitable pliable material and has a cone-shaped ridge member 5 and an outer plate 6 attached thereto by screws 7. This plate 5 is rovided. with a hole to receive a nipple 8 inserted inwhioh is a sleeve 9 housing a spring-pressed poppet valve 11. On the upper surface of the plate 6 there is a central boss 12 to which there is attached by screws (not shown) a supporting disk 13. By means of this boss 12 and the disk 13 the tree may be readily connected to the treeing machine, as shown in said patent, and the body member 10 inflated. The construction is such that the tree may be removed from the treeing machine while still in an inflated condition. y

Over the inflatable body member 10 and the inner plate 5 is fitted a shell or covering 18 of resilient material such, for example, as one of the well-known types of rubber which is comparatively hard and which, when vulcanized, becomes relatively stiff and resilient, and not merely pliable asis the rubber used for the body member 10. ,Such a rubber shell is generally preferable for womens work instead of celluloid or fiberboard, either of which, however, may be used. I 1

his desirable insome instances when th shell is made of special rubber, as indicated above, or otherwise when the material of the shell, whatever its nature, requires it, that the upper part of the tree should have a solid instep filling portion. This may beformed, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, by the inner plate 14.- whichmay be made to extend down to the dotted line 32 in Fig.1 and as shown in Fig. 3 over the upper portion of the inflatable interior 10 and insidethe shell 18. p 2

As indicated by Fig. 2, the shell is providedon the sole face of the tree with a flange 20 extending around the forepart of the tree. This ever be in practice required. The flange serves to hold the flimsy, expansible -inner body member in place as the tree is inserted in a shoe and for this reason it is preferable, where the material employed for the shell permits of it, to have a flange 23 of substantial width at the extreme'toe end'sothat there shall not be any tendency for the toe end of the shell to spring off and expose the toe end of the inner body ,member as the sole surface of the toe of the shell is inserted. in the shoe and pushed alongin. contact with the inner sole surface of the latter, 7 I

The sole flange 20 of this shell is of as small a width as is practical along the sides of the forepart in order to reduce friction between the flange and the inner sole surface of the shoe as the'tree is expanded after insertion. Where rubber or like material, as opposed for instance to celluloid which has a comparativeg 1y hard and frictionless surface, is used for the shell, the use of. wide flanges at the forepart sides is preferably avoided as being likely to prevent full and easy expansion of the tree. 'As shown in Fig. 4, the edges of the shell .Where the flanges meet the side walls. are made substantially angular, as indicated by the reference numerals 21, so that when ex.- panded the shell may fill the shoe at. the feather line snugly. The material of the shell may be first built up and finally scoured oflf to produce this result. 1 As indicated in Fig. 2, on the sole surface in the shank of a tree of this construction the edges of the shell approach one another at the points 22, finally meeting ata point 2 1 well in advance of the heel. In womens work it is not usually necessary-for the heelfportion of an expansible tree to have more than limited extensibility. The heel end of the ion ios

lie

shell is made narrower in width than the last on which the shoe was made, as indicated at 25 in Fig. 2, and is rounded off-at the heel end by blending the lower part of the heel end, as seen at 26 in Fig. 1, into the sole by aneasy curve (as isxusual with hollow shoe display fillers), both these modifications from the last shape being made to secure easy entrance of the tree into and exit from the shoe.

The main area of the sole face 30 of the in flatable interior is, with the form of shell in cated provides a correctly contoured internal support for the entire forepart and shank of particularly ladies oxfords and does not tend to distort the edges of uppers of such shoes or their instep strap if present. Also, the margin of the shell adjacent to the sole affords correctly shaped support for the feather of the upper around the forepart and in the shank of the shoe, an effect not usually 0 obtainable with inflatable tree feet of usual type which generallyv tend to give undue convex curvature to these parts.

In use, the tree thus formed of an inflatable interior body memberlO and a resilient shell 18 may be inflated and handledeXactlyas the tree feet described in the Read Patent No. 1,7 97 ,020 referred to above. The shellis sufficiently flexible asawhole for its s des to spread apart and thus fill a shoe but will provide an external surface all Over the upper of a shoe fitted upon it which represents substantially exactly the contours of the last which the shell substantially duplicates. The action of distending the inflatable body member produces no substantial alteration in the exterior shape of the shell which retains in particular any concave curvatures it possesses. The inflatable body member is free,

as before indicated, over practically its whole sole surface to force the shell against the interior of the shoe upper.

In dealing with other classes of shoes, for instance mens work, it may be desirable to employ a more rigid material for the shell than the resilient rubber above indicated. Fiberboard or celluloid molded to the shape of an individual last in the manner habitually employed for making shoe display fillers may 40 be employed.

In such an instance the shell will preferably be molded with a part or portions integral with the main body of the shell to form a crown for the shell which may be clamped between inner and outer plates in the same way as the rubber referred to above. Viewed from the sole face, a shell of this particular character will preferably have a flange which is very narrow around the toe end of the shell so as to avoid imparting any substantial degree of rigidity against pressure applied laterally to the shell sides either inwardly or outwardly. Also, with a shell of this nature the edges of the shell preferably gradually approach one another from the region of the ball line between the forepart and shank portions of the foot until they meet at the heel end, being conveniently joined together round the extreme rear of the heel at a distance about one inch above the heel seat of the corresponding last.

Since the margins of a shell thus made do not meet at the heel end of the shell below the upper part thereof, the interior is enabled to expand at the lower portion of the heel end to force the shell bodily snugly into the terior contours when inflated. When an inflatable body member is housed within a resilient shell in the manner above described, the main requirement remaining for the interior portion is that the sole surface shall not distend too far along its midline when subjected to internal pressure. The retention of a very few ribs 34, shown as three in Figs. 3 and l, or even a single internal rib (of material, it being understood, extensible to some degree) is suflicient tosecure the result desired.

In dealing with shoes having uppers of some classes of leather, generally those of light weight and glossy surface, it is desirable to provide a supporting surface, against which the upper may be ironed, of a somewhat yielding character. In such instances the employment of the specially resilient qualities of rubber above indicated will usually provide a surface such as is desired.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A pneumatically expansible shoe tree having an inflatable body member and an exterior cover member of relatively stiff resilient material shaped to simulate a shoe upper and having curves and sharp corners like those of the contour of a shoe and adapted, when pressed against the interior of a shoe by inflation of the body member, substantially completely to fill or even temporarily slightly to distend the shoe while retaining substantially unchanged the exterior contour of the shoe imparted by lasting.

2. A pneumatically expansible shoe tree comprising an inflatable body member, a resilient shell substantially surrounding the sides of said body member with its edges separated along the bottom thereof and arranged for extension laterally of the shoe thereby to fill completely at least the forepart of a shoe in which the tree is fitted.

3. A shoe tree according to claim 2 in which the shell is formed of resilient sheet material such as celluloid.

4. A shoe tree according to claim 2 in which the shell is formed of fiberboard.

5. A shoe tree according to claim 2 in which the shell is formed of rubber having greater resiliency and stiffness than the bodymember.

, '6. A pneumatically expansible wshoe tree provided with a shoe-bottoin-engaging surface of amaterial readily distortable by 111- flation,'said shoe tree having a curved top surface, arranged to engage substantially the whole of theinterior of a shoe upper above the sole of theshoe, of a material which is only slightly distortable by inflation.

7. A pneumatically expansibleshoe tree having a shoe-sole-engaging surface of material which is laterally stretchable upon inflation of the tree and'h'aving a surface. ar-

ranged toengage the interior of ashoe upper above the-sole thereof of a stiff, non-stretchable resilient material the, lower portion of which. are free for lateral deflection onex- Eansion of the sole-engaging surface, therey to fill the shoe completely laterally while retaining substantially the same exterior :'-'4)'"'contour which the shoe had'before the last 7 V wasremo'ved,

8.-A pneumatically expansible shoe tree comprising an inflatable body member and a resilient shell-like covering for said body member, said resilient covering having a peripheral flange underlying part of the bot-; .tom surface of the body member and forming sharp angles with the upper surface around the forepart.-

9. A pneumatically expansible shoe tree comprising an inflatable body member and a resilient shell-like covering for said body member, said resilient covering'having a peripheral flange underlying part of the bottom surface of the body member, said flange beingnarrower along the sides than it is around the extreme toe end of the tree.

In testimony whereof Ihave signed ,my name to this specification.

HARRY HALLAM 

